1. Background to Relevant Art
As computerized systems have increased in popularity, so have the needs to create and manipulate information, as well as complete electronic transactions or reports using computerized systems. In general, many electronic transactions are initiated and completed as part of a process-based application (also referred to as a “workflow,” “process,” or “business process”). Many process-based applications (i.e., “guided process” applications) follow a “wizard” style format, in that they require the user to finish a number of steps in a particular process sequence before the user exits the application interface or the computer system, or before saving progress.
For example, a web-based guided process application for online purchases might require a user to complete or execute one or more steps in a particular sequence, such as enter address information, credit card information, and the like. The web-based guided process might then submit the entered information to a central hub for processing. In some cases, the sequence may be dictated by links embedded within the presented page, while in other cases, the page sequence may be dictated by coding in the specific guided process application that processes information received from the pages. In this example, the entire process can be entered and submitted by a single user. Other, more complex transactions, however, may be less intuitive for wizard style processing, such as transactions that involve entries, submissions, or verifications from other parties.
For example, a bank might provide an internet/web-based guided process application for completing a loan application. To complete the loan application, the bank might provide a certain web-based guided process application that asks the user to login through a web browser, and then enter data into sets of web pages presented in a particular sequence. The guided process might then display first a personal information page, and then verify the entered contents before presenting a next page in the sequence. For example, the guided process might submit a user's entry to a central verification hub and, if validated, only then display a subsequent page for a user to enter the amount of the loan, and/or perhaps the intended use for the loan. Such a sequence of pages might be dictated in part by certain definitions of the guided process, or navigation logic built into the initially displayed pages themselves.
In some cases, each page in user interface may not be complete until another user or third party has a chance to perform some additional verifications. Since process-based (or wizard-style) applications do not typically have a concept of “multiple simultaneous users,” however, and/or otherwise rely on specific ordering, an institution may break up a particular transaction into multiple different wizard style applications. With respect to the above-described loan application, for example, the bank may require a loan officer to perform some action on data submitted by the user with a different wizard-style application program. For example, the user's web-based loan application might prepare and submit a summary sheet, which the loan officer, in turn, might amend, change, or approve using a different web-based guided process application.
In addition to these problems, one will appreciate that a number of the above-described steps may not necessarily depend (or follow) from each other. For example, if a user were filling out a loan application by hand on paper, the user could enter bank account information before entering personal contact information, and vice versa, so long as the user writes in all the required fields before submitting the application. Another advantage of the handwriting approach is that the user can easily stop and return to the loan application, and easily identify what still needs to be entered on the paper.
As previously described, however, guided process-based applications generally require steps “A(1−n)” to be entered before presenting a next set of steps “A(n,n+1)” in a new page display. In addition, since such guided process applications generally do not have a concept of “multiple simultaneous users,” there are difficulties when needing certain page data to be validated by another user before proceeding.
In particular, this sort of page-by-page sequential processing and validation can make it difficult for a user to measure progress in a particular transaction, and/or to see how far the user may still need to go before completion. For example, links within a parent page to specific “child” pages that need to be completed may still be displayed to the user within the parent page even after the user has completed the referenced child pages. With respect to the above-described loan example, a first page displayed by a web application might include several internet links to other pages that need to be completed by a user or a group of users, and/or by a third party user (e.g., a loan officer). Most guided process-based applications would allow the user (or third-party user) to click on any one of the links and fill out information on that page, and then submit that child page.
Unfortunately, there is no efficient mechanism for sharing the transmitting of an execution context of the child page with the parent page. As a result, when the user returns to the original parent page, the parent page display may not make clear to the user that the user successfully completed a particular task, such as filling out one of the required child pages. Although it is sometimes possible to infer whether or not a task is done by detecting data changes, such an approach tends not to be accurate, particularly if the task does not modify any data.
In particular, there is no available mechanism for the parent page to detect changes in the state of a child page, which could provide a more accurate insight into what actions the user has performed during the guided process. Thus, the only clue the user might be able to derive about having finished one of the child pages is that the link to the child page (in the case of using hyperlinks) might be colored differently. Such an indication, however, typically tends to suggest that the user only visited the child page, regardless of whether the user successfully completed filling out or otherwise executing some part of the child page.
Accordingly, there are a number of difficulties that can be addressed in guided process-based application programs, and corresponding page navigation techniques.